The Golden Boy 

It is cool to see the XC- and realize how Suntour modified and built on that design- really using it for the basis of all the following Superbe Pro, Cyclone and numbered XC variants that followed... It's interesting about where Suntour was attempting to go around this time-

The triple pulley cage is incredible- it takes up stunning amounts of chain- my pic above just has the Bullseye on the outer pulley for bling- that pulley is rarely in use and a sealed bearing unit would be overkill there- but IIRC it's a 9T pulley to avoid it being engaged and catching on anything as the chain gets tighter. The drawback is that it's 2 big heavy plates. FWIW- the triple pulley initiative was a joint venture with Nishiki- I think those were all branded LePree- all the other ones XC, Cyclone MII, XC Sport came in 85/85 after the 1 year exclusivity for Nishiki. But in that time SIS cleaned house. Shimano invented indexed shifting while Suntour was trying to figure out how to go over rocks.

There were the ultra long cage derailleurs- The LeTech and the 2nd gen Mountech... I would have imagined the Suntour engineers realized that the 15t pulley did a majority of the work without having to have that huge long cage swing around- way too easy to get bent.

There's the triple pivot- Suntour trying to reverse engineer the Duopar and all the bad things that go along with it- and then adding in the exploding captive pulley on the 1st gen Mountech, then there's the LeTech that not only had the triple pivot, but also had a cage that was longer than most people's forearms.

XC was the top level and XC Sport was the level down from there- Suntour knew indexing was either there or around the corner- but the XC Sport got the barrel adjuster- and XC was just straight in. I guess that was to save weight, and they probably didn't have any research into indexing and cable pull and all that...

obrentharris 

That's one highly modified Huret Alvit!

My vague recollection, from the 1960s when I rode a bike with the Alvit, was that frequent applications of oil kept it running well enough; as opposed to the plastic Simplex derailleurs which seemed to work just as well, at least for 14-year-old me, without the frequent lubrication.

Given the careless nature of many 14-year-old boys My Huret may have only needed frequent lubrication because of deformation caused by negligence.

Brent

Korina

Nah, the husbeast picked up some low-normal RDs in the day and I want to try one.

supernova9

Slant Parallelogram changed the universe

smd4

No. 1 was asleep, resting on laurels and cushy pillows.

No. 2 realized what No. 3 was about to lose when a certain patent expired.

No. 2 took advantage, created SIS, knocked No. 1 on their arse, and became No. 1 themselves.

non-fixie 

It is. I love how Mr Hirose went about building his bikes.
However, that wasn't the main reason I posted that footage. I think the Allvit is the coolest derailleur to be listening to and especially to be looking at when it shifts.

Mrs non-fixie has one on her Mercier. For her that bike was the start of her love affair with down tube shifters. For me, it's the bike I always like to ride behind, just to see and hear that Allvit do its thing.

VintageRide

I sent a PM - back after a somewhat long hiatus so hopefully you will get in touch!

noglider 

Also gorgeous but a big disappointment. I toured for three months with one of these. It did the job, but it didn't make shifting as easy as it could have been. Then I installed it on my kid's bike, and it got broken, and apparently it wasn't anyone's fault. There is a weak spot in the knuckle, and it snaps off. I was really disappointed to see such a thing of beauty broken, and the prices on ebay for replacements are, uh, not justified. Ah well.

I really like the writing on the disraeligears site. And the pictures are great; there are many derailleurs that make me say, "That's the prettiest."

Lbxpdx

grabbed it from the library. Thanks for the suggestion. Looks to be interesting.